What I've Become
by ACeH-aH
Summary: DISOWNER  all but idea and some characters  Full summary inside.  Buffy is 20 years old, has a boyfriend named Angel, and a super secret life! What will happen when Master Vamp William the Bloody comes to town - a long with a crazy hell god?
1. Chapter 1

What I've Become

Summary: 

Buffy is twenty years old, she's been slaying for five years now along side her friends Willow and Xander, her sister Dawn, her watcher Giles, and her boyfriend Angel.

When the Big Bad makes his way into town, things start to get a little rough.

The scoobies are in some _desperate _need of help, and the only one to turn to is a blood lust filled Master Vamp.  
>Buffy has to learn to deal with the drama created by her new friend Spike and his rivalry with… Everyone. And also figure out a way to deal with a crazy hell god.<br>A little bit of magic, plot twists, romance, and drama. Hope you enjoy!

**A/N: So this is my third fanfiction going at the moment, but I promise to update them all quite often. I hope you enjoy, R&R please!**

"Angel heads up!" Buffy chucked a wooden stake across the graveyard, and Angel caught it swiftly and stabbed it into their latest vampire's heart. "On your left!" He pivoted to take out another member of the large coven, receiving a very painful punch in the jaw. He fell to the ground dazed, but managed to kick the vamp in the chest when it jumped on him.

"Buffy help!" Willow shouted when a curly haired female vampire pinned her against the mausoleum.

Buffy responded to the call by doing a flip over the vampire she was fighting with, and staking him in the back before sprinting over to her red haired friend and ripping a thirsty fiend off of her.

This was just a usual Tuesday for Buffy and her tag team. Every night for the past six years (a little longer on Buffy's side), the group would go out to slay a couple of vampires, maybe a demon or two. That was just the way it was. This night however, there were a little more than a "couple of vampires", there were about fifteen of them. It was another one of _those _nights. Every once in a while, a group of something or another would come and try to get rid of the slayer.

Giles ran his stake through the last vampire, and then leaned tiredly against the mausoleum with a sigh. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. "Well that was definitely interesting." He muttered to himself, standing straight.

"Wow, I haven't seen that many vampires at one time since… Since wow I don't think I've ever seen that many – No, no there was that one time. With the… Yeah wow." Willow said with a surprised but proud grin.

"Let's do something _else_." Xander groans. "We've been at this for hours!"

"It's been an hour Xan." Angel pitches in.

"Come on; let's go to the Bronze or something." He pleads.

"Hey guys did you hear something?" Angel perks his head up and scans the graveyard.

Buffy listens carefully too. She doesn't sense any more vampires… _Oh, there it is. _She scowls in her mind.

Another vampire jumps out from behind a large tomb stone and throws itself at Giles. Buffy is there in a second and stakes him in mid air. The vamp turns to dust and blows away in the breeze that is just beginning to pick up.

"To the Bronze." Buffy sais leading the way. Xander makes a fist and makes a 'yessss' type of gesture with his arm before trotting off behind her. The rest of the group roles their eyes before going along.

**A/N: Reviews please? (Yeah, I know it's short and I switch tenses randomly. I have an excuse! Not really. Ignore the flaw in tenses, please.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, I couldn't log on – reasons unknown. But here's my new chapter and I promise you it's a proper length (unlike the last). R&R I hope you enjoy!**

_(We left off after the scoobies all fight crazy vamps in the local graveyard, and then decide – thanks to Xander – to head off to the Bronze!)_

The crowd inside the Bronze is slight since it's been open for barely an hour. The party won't pick up for a while still. Xander makes his way to the bar and orders drinks for all of his friends, and pays with a twenty that he has on hand. Happy he can still pay with only a twenty, he passed out the drinks to everyone, parched from their most recent slayage of vampires.

"Angel," Buffy chokes out after chugging hers. "Dance?" She makes a face at the strange taste of the alcohol and pulls her boyfriend onto the dance floor. Casually, they sway to the beat of the song they can barely make out over the heavy _thud thump thud _of the bass.

After an hour or so, a band begins to set up on the stage. A girl who is fidgeting with the mic stand at the front of the stage is dressed in a trashy looking leather top and pants with chains hanging loosely from them, and has dark purple lipstick. The drummer has multiple piercings and a very depressed expression on his face. The rest of the group's backs are to the dance floor.

"Ok who died?" Xander asks Willow sarcastically.

Willow chuckles. "This is a pretty cool band around her Xander, the people love them."

"Ok well then, why do they look so… So…"

"Creepy?" Willow filled in.

"Not creepy," Xander waves his arms to the side as if that would place the rest of his thoughts out for Willow to read. "Just… Not, uncreepy." He eyes the band again. "They just seem so depressed."

"It's in style." Willow laughs at his goofy smile. "Come on let's go dance." They join Angel Buffy and Dawn on the dance floor and begin to flail their arms and jump up and down in tune with the beat.

With red cheeks, Buffy excuses herself from the group. She makes her way towards the bathroom at the back. Next time, less than too many drinks, she thinks to herself. Tipsy, she leans on the wall for support along the hallway. She stumbled over some invisible tripping device that she often finds after a couple of drinks, but a strong hand wraps around her arm stopping her from hitting the floor. Turning to see her boyfriend, her eyes widen with shock before the embarrassment sets in. "Oh, thanks." She smiles up to a tall bleach blonde.

"Any time." His British accent clear over the steadily increasing noise of the clubbers. He helps her get her footing, and then watches her make her way to the bathroom. After the door swings to a close, he smiles darkly to himself. So she doesn't know who she is…

"Hey has anyone seen Buffy?" Xander asks his circle of dancing friends.

Angel lifts his head listening for her, and then sniffs the air. She'd headed for the washroom. He smiles to himself at how cute he finds her, and then turns back to Xander. "Don't worry; she's just gone to the bathroom."

The slow beat that the gothic rock band is planning suddenly picks up, and to many cheers the dancing becomes more energized.

"See what I mean?" Willow grins at Xander.

Buffy goes out the back door. "Nothing like a little fresh air to revive the senses." She sais to no one in particular. When some teenagers open up the door again, "Especially after a good old dose of stuffy hot air from the Bronze."

"Somebody help me!" A girl's voice sounds from nearby.

Buffy runs quickly around the corner of the building, and jump kicks a vamp whose fangs are inches from a young brunette girl. "Not on my watch." She punches him hard in the face and he flies back into the wall. "You can run now." She smiles at the girl who obeys without hesitation. "Alright, and now to deal with you." She turns back to the vampire but sees nothing. Just an empty parking lot. "Hmm, that's cheating." She whines.

"You're pretty strong there aren't you?" A deep British voice calls out.

Buffy turns around to look at the man from inside, standing a few meters away from herself.

"You wouldn't happen to be Buffy Summers would you?"

"How did you know?"

"You're pretty well known where I come from." He leers.

"Well, that's me. So what can I do ya for?"

The man slowly walks towards her, crossing the cold pavement of the parking lot. "Just makin' sure you were who I thought you were slayer."

Buffy's eyes grow wide when she realizes she's talking to a vampire.

"No worries, I'm just passing through." He looks around and puts his hands in his pockets before looking innocently back at her. "I won't cause you any trouble tonight."

"Oh really? And what about tomorrow night? Or the next?" Buffy questioned pulling out her stake.

"Oh that's cute." He laughed, then picked up his own stake and chucked it towards her, but missed her by about a foot. Buffy watched the stake pass her, and noticed it fly through a nearby vampire's heart.

"I didn't even know he was there!" Buffy frowned.

"Her actually." The man winked at her and then disappeared into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

_(We left off after a mysterious vampire shows up at the Bronze with the scoobies!)_

Buffy had recently taken up a job at the Double Meat Palace, and since then had gotten a second job as a councilor at the high school to help pay her way through school. She'd gotten into the local university, where her and Willow shuffled themselves down to five days a week for their classes. Fortunately, this school was not located on top of a hell mouth.

"We're so late." Buffy groans when the bus stops at yet another street corner. "We need a car."

"I know, let's get one!" Willow cheers with a grin. "Oh wait, $30,000 – a couple of cents a day…" her sarcasm was good humored, but Buffy still pouts that the point.

"I know," She sighs. "The bus is so depressing."

They arrive at the school with minutes to spare before their second classes. Willow hurries off to the technology building to fulfill her computer dreams, while Buffy heads down the sciences to learn about basic psychology. It wasn't her first pick, but at least she had a slight chance at a somewhat normal adult hood. Maybe she wouldn't be stuck at the Double Meat Palace forever.

Today, the aged professor was telling his students about the various traumas and how to deal with them. Buffy pays herself little attention to the lecture; she's too lost in thought about the mysterious vampire from the night before. He'd killed on of his own in order to protect her, or for her to gain a false sense of trust with him… She silently hopes that she won't run into him again.

"Ms. Summers, would you mind explaining to Mr. Jones here what exactly I mean by the term 'post traumatic shock'?" The professor said from the front of the class.

Buffy looks over to Tim Jones, who is sitting with red cheeks staring at his laptop. Clearly he had been paying about just as much attention as she. She um-ed out loud for a second flipping through her notes, and was cut off by the professor as soon as she began to speak.

"No? Too bad." He said moving along with the lesson.

She began to take notes from what he was saying; she didn't want to go through _that _embarrassment again. She saved her document as the date inside her _psych _folder, and began to quickly type away. She got lost a couple of times, and made herself a mental note to go over the chapter in her text book later.

The buzzer went off and she was finally released from the big white room they called a _classroom_. Buffy met up with Willow by the road, and they walked chatting together towards the Double Meat Palace, where they would eat lunch, and then Buffy would begin her oh so dreaded shift.

"The teacher was showing us this new program today where we can design our own voice activated programs. It's really cool." Willow said excitedly, bouncing down the sidewalk. "I made mine a document opening one, so that way I don't have to keep searching through my stuff. I can just say 'November 3rd, programming' and hey! –There it is!" She smiles broadly at her friend and tucks her hair behind her ear.

"That's better than what we did today." Buffy whined.

"Oh no, did Professor Turner pick on you again?" She gives Buffy a look of sympathy.

"I wasn't really paying attention today. My brain was somewhere else." The smile she made was tight, pondering.

"Thinking about Angel again?" Willow beamed, Buffy and Angel had been together for five years now, and Willow still got all giggly about the two.

"No," Buffy smiled good humouredly. "I ran into some weird vamp last night… I dunno it was all kinda confusing."

"Well, do you want to talk about it?" Willow asked concerned.

They didn't have time to discuss the matter; they arrive at the Double Meat Palace too late for Buffy to enjoy a greasy meal before her shift. She tied her hair up beneath her hat, and stepped up the grill. She lays five patties down and they sizzle on the heat and oil. After a few seconds, the flips them and sees the dark brown it's turned where it was face down on the hot metal.

Putting a first patty on a bun, Buffy adds the rest of the sandwich together before wrapping it in a silvery paper and sending it off. It was getting dark out; Buffy looks at the clock and realizes her shift will be ending soon. She decides it wouldn't hurt anyone if she took a quick burger break before she finished up behind the counter. She'd been working the grill all day, she deserved a break.

"Hunny, I'm home!" Xander calls into the Summers' house after sliding his first arm out of his jacket.

"Xander!" Willow and Dawn scream together from upstairs, though neither of them come to greet him.

"Uh, guys?" He calls up wondering what the hold up was.

"We're up here! Come quick!" They're shouting to him, and as he's half way up to the second story he hears them scream and runs as fast as humanly possible into Willow's room where the girls are pressed against the back wall.

"What? Where is it?" He shouts at them looking around the room where he realizes quickly that they're the only ones standing in.

"Behind you!" Willow shrieks.

Xander whips around and stares out into the hall. Was there some kind of beastie here that only the girls could see? "Guys I don't see anything." He nervously glances around, but still can't place the evil that scares his friends.

"On the wall!" Dawn shouts at him.

"The wall?" He looks up to the side and understands why he couldn't see the monster before. "Wow that thing is huge! And hairy and slimy and what is this thing?" He stares at it for a second before turning and giving a disappointed look to both girls. "It's a little spider."

"What are you saying?" Willow gulps staring at it. "The thing is huge!"

"Yeah, and we were going to put it outside, but it jumped at us. I think we should call Buffy." Dawn agrees with Willow.

"Guys, this thing is smaller than my pinky nail. Watch." He grabs a book off Willow's desk and smashes it onto the spider. "See? All gone."

"Xander," Willow pouts. "That's my school book."

"…Oh." Xander puts it down and looks at her apologetically. "Sorry."

"Xander look!" Dawn shouts pointing at the smooshed – or ex-smooshed – spider crawling off of the book."

"Well now that's just weird." Xander eyes it with a cautious wonder.


	4. Chapter 4

_(We left Buffy on her break at work, and Willow, Dawn and Xander with a spider that keeps coming back to life.)_

Finished with her extra long shift at the Double Meat Palace, Buffy can't hide her enthusiasm at finally getting out of there. Seven and a half hours of flipping burgers and taking orders from random strangers was not her favorite way to pass the time. She grabbed her red coat from her locker in the staff lounge area, and punched out her card and had to take deep breaths of burger smelling air to stop herself from running full speed out of the shabby building.

_Deep breaths Buffy, you're almost there, _she encouraged herself. She hated the Double Meat Palace, but what choice did she have? Just being an eight dollar an hour councilor occasionally at the high school was _not _going to pay the bills. And anyways this way, she could put aside a few dollars per pay check to save up for a car. Probably not a very nice car (since she was an almost minimum wage employee), but a car none the less.

Flinging her purse on her shoulder as the walked, she exited the building filled with relief. She would probably stay in the high of the moment for the next few hours, until she realized how much longer she had until she would be right back in the fast food restaurant living life to it's fullest. Oh how sarcasm makes life seem less dreary. Buffy was sarcastic a lot these days, sarcastic to her friends, her sister, her work peers, employers, to herself even. It just seemed to help pass the time between jobs.

"Help me!" A frightened female's scream brought Buffy out of her thoughts. _Time to patrol I guess. _

Buffy turned into the alley where a tall dark haired vampire was teasing a young woman, probably only a few years older than Buffy herself. "Didn't you mother ever teach you not to play with you food?" Buffy scolded the vampire before punching his hard in the jaw. "You can run now." She said over her shoulder to the girl.

The girl ran away in a _whoosh _of dirty blonde hair, and Buffy turned her attention to her game. Her eyes way on the girl too long though she realized as an undead fist bashed her just as she'd done only a moment ago. "I am not in the mood to get my teeth knocked out today thanks, I was just at the dentist a while ago and I do _not _want to go back there again any time soon. So if you don't mind." She punched the vamp again and he fell backwards into the hard brick wall. She reached to pull the stake out of her pocket when she realized she was very unarmed. She must have left the stake in her locker.

Her searching left her vulnerable to a low kick to her feet that sent her sprawled on the cold pavement.

"Not today princess, mmm you sure look tasty." The vampire licked it's lips before kicking her in the ribs with an uncomfortable _thud_.

Another vampire appeared then, jumping down from the roof onto a garbage bin, and then from the garbage bin to the ground. "Now, is that anyway to treat a lady?" Angel smirked and staked the vampire through the heart, and watched him dust. "You ok Buffy?"

"Yeah, just a little sore." She prodded her ribs which she was sure would be a dark purple in the morning. "Got a good kick in there." She winced.

"Here let me help you." Angel offered quickly, taking her arm and pulling her to her feet.

"Thanks," She smiled at him. He took her hand and they began back onto the street, the half moon shining down from above them. "I guess we'd better hit the graveyard?" She considered.

"Yeah, I guess so." He grinned and then turned and pushed her into a tree that was on a green patch beside the sidewalk. "Or not." He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers for a moment before pulling back with a flutter of his eyelashes.

Buffy pulled his face back down to hers and after a moment she whispered, "Or not." And they resumed their semi-romantic kiss only a couple of blocks away from the destination she knew she should have been seeking.

"Xander hit it again!" Willow shouted when the spider began scurrying towards the edge of the desk.

"I did it won't die!" He called back aggravated. He picked up another, heavier book, and threw it down hard on top of the little hairy black arachnid. "There, I think that did it." He looked down at the thing with distaste and turned back to the girls. "Man that was annoying."

"Yeah," Willow chuckled nervously. She wore the same wide eyed deer in the headlights sort of look that Dawn had on, and were staring past him towards the streak of slime. "Except you didn't kill it."

"What?" He turned around and sure enough, the spider was crawling towards him again, only this time, it seemed to have doubled it's size. "What is this?" He demanded to no one in particular.

"I think I can help you there!" Anya said in a rather _saved the day _kind of voice, and she walked into the room with a jar.

"Ahn, when did you get here?" Xander asked confused, but relieved when Anya seemed to know what she was doing.

"Oh a while, I was just down stairs listening to the comedy act going on up here when I decided to end your misery and help." The jar she held was filled with water, and she scooped the spider with a quiet "there we go, come on" and slipped him into the jar, screwing on the lid. "All fixed. She grinned and revealed that the spider was flipping around in the water unable to escape.

The others side in relief and smiled at one another.

"Maybe next time we should just put it outside." Willow said brightly.

"Yeah, maybe." Xander gave her a look that clearly read 'you think?'

The pizza had extra cheese, pepperoni, and not enough tomato sauce to taste, but the scoobies were sure that Buffy would be pleased with their selection when she got home. They were all on their second slice when she finally entered with a cheerful "I'm home!" that sent everybody into a large group hug.

Angel had gone back to his place after they had a quick round of 'beat some ugly vamps to a pulp'. He had offered to walk her home, but she'd insisted that she could manage on her own. The pain on her side was slightly less, but she figured she'd still be stiff and a little sore in the morning.

"So did you kill any vampires?" Xander waved his pizza hand in a questioning gesture.

"Well, not personally." Her response received many puzzled glances from her friends. "It was a slow night; Angel got the only guy we found." She grabbed a slice of pizza and bit hungrily into it. The almost warm almost cold cheese unstuck itself from the bread before the got the bit into her mouth, and it was a little drier than she imagined pizza should be, but pizza was pizza and she was glad to have it.

"So how was work?" Dawn asked leaning her hands on the island and looking for any kind of amusing story.

"Also slow." Was as amusing as she was going to get. "Actually, there wasn't many people there at all today. The manager actually let more than half of the workers off because it was so dead in there." A snorted laugh from Xander made her add, "Pun not intended."

"Well that's definitely strange." Xander said with a mouth full. He swallowed before continuing. "The place is usually jam packed with people." He took another, slightly more animal, bite out of his pizza slice that was more like a dog tearing flesh away from it's prey.

"Xander stop being such a pig!" Anya criticized with a disapproving glare. "Seriously, most of the demons from my home plane ate more politely than you." She shook her head and took a very small nibble from her pizza's crust.

Xander's mouth was full to burst as he looked up with an emotion on his face that was Xander's alone. Willow Dawn and Buffy chuckled at the couple, and then simultaneously burst into laughter at the look on their friends face.

"Wow guys, just wow. Ok I'm going to bed." Buffy grinned before rinsing her plate in the sink and heading for the stairs.

When she finally got into bed, a creak from the window caught her attention as a tall hansom Angel appeared climbing into her room. "Hey Buffy." He gave her his sweet smile that showed a lot on his face when he was with her.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Just wondering if anyone else is having trouble viewing their story stats? I haven't been able to see any of the numbers (how many visitors and hits etc) since I've been able to log on (after the few days I couldn't log on). I know people have read my stuff since I'm getting reviews, so it isn't that no one's reading… Any thoughts? And to those of you who were wondering, the answer is **_**yes, yes they do know Angel is a vampire. **_

After a very romantic night with Angel, Buffy woke alone in her bed. He obviously had to take off before the sun rose, but she'd see him soon. She'd make sure of it.

In the kitchen, Willow was making breakfast for Dawn who wiggled her eyebrows at Buffy when she walked in. Apparently she'd been a little bit more conspicuous than she'd thought. "What's for breakfast Will?" Buffy tried to hide her blush as she sat down beside Dawn at the island.

"Scrambled eggs and toast." Willow's silly grin confirmed her suspicions.

"With a side of hunky vampire." Dawn laughed out loud and Buffy pretended very unconvincingly that she hadn't heard.

They ate together in an uncomfortable giggle fest over Buffy's night, and then Willow and Dawn had to hurry off to school. Buffy was left alone in her big empty house. After a few moments of sitting alone in the kitchen she decided that she should pay Angel a visit. She didn't have to be at the school for three hours still until her day as a councilor started.

Wearing her beige jacket, Buffy walked at a fairly average pace along the road towards Angel's place. She took a quick detour through the graveyard, and stopped short outside one of the few crypts in Sunnydale. The door which was usually locked and sealed tight was a jar, and the familiar smell of cigarettes were wafting out of the small stone building. Buffy took a step towards the door, deciding that if it were a bunch of rowdy teenagers that she could easily handle them.

A good hard kick sent the door flying inwards as Buffy broke into the crypt cautiously. She looked around and was caught off guard when a deep British voice snapped her out of her search.

"'Ey what's the big idea?" A tall bleach blonde man with a cigarette dangling from his fingers glared. "Can't a bloke get a good nights death around 'ere?" He muttered around his drag.

"You're the guy from the bronze." Buffy realized and her short temper resided a little.

"Yeah, what's your point?" He puffed out the smoke he'd inhaled and looked her over. "What are you doing here?"

"I just thought…" She looked around for any sign of company. "Wait, wait. What are _you _doing here?" She raised her eyebrow at him.

"What am I –" he laughed darkly. "I live here now pet. Better get used to it." He relaxed into a rather worn looking leather chair and took another puff of toxins before putting it out with his foot.

"You live _here_?" Buffy asked in disbelief. "Wow, I knew times were bad, but living in a dusty old crypt." She tisked.

"Hey, vamps gotta do what vamps gotta do." He smirked. "Not like we can go out and buy a place this afternoon." He winked.

As true as that was – with the whole vampire's burn up in the sun thing – she'd never met a vampire who decided to live out their days in a crypt. Well, there's a first for everything.

"So what's your name?" She asked him leaning back against a sarcophagus.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He got up and walked over to an old fridge, and pulled out a bag of blood. "Want anything?" He asked with nonchalance. "'ve got some beer and such if you'd like." He poured the dark red syrup into a mug and took a swig.

"No thanks, still a bit early for me." She eyed him carefully. "So why aren't you trying to kill me?" She asked doubtful to get any real answer out of him.

"Could ask you the same thing pet. Shouldn't you be slaying me?" She shrugged at his answer and took a seat on a stone bench.

"You drink blood from a bag?"

The man snarled and then composed himself. "Got this chip in my head I do. 'M not aloud to hurt humans anymore. Not without my head exploding anyway." He looked into the mug with distaste before finishing it off. "Don't know why I'm telling you that though."

"Oh so you're like a neutered vampire." She teased.

"Well… Hey that's not fair." He glared. He looked like he was about to say something slightly more witty, but decided not to.

The two made small talk for a while longer, and when Buffy was slightly trustful that he wasn't going to make trouble, she left for work with him alive in the crypt.

So she hadn't gotten to see Angel this morning, big deal? She could still see him tonight. She was slightly angry at herself for taking such a long visit with a vampire that wasn't her boyfriend, but she could make up for that later. Wondering whether she should have just staked the blonde, she sat at her desk with worry.

He _seemed _ok, he'd saved her before. And he hadn't attacked anyone at the bronze, and he seemed nice enough… ish. But could it all be some big façade to get on her good side? He was drinking bagged blood, just like Angel. Besides having another vampire on her side could be helpful, right?

Buffy didn't have time to finish the thought. A short plump boy that looked as much a freshman as anyone could, came and sat down in the chair opposite her. He looked at her blank faced for a minute before a quick "hi".

"Uhm, hi there." Buffy answered back. "How are you today?" She looked him over quickly, he seemed content enough.

"I'm Lenny." He said casually, his voice sounded stiff.

"Hi Lenny, I'm Buffy." She smiled. He didn't say anything more. "So what brings you here?"

"I brought lunch today. I don't usually bring lunch." He kept staring blankly at her, and being the slayer, she got extra nervous when she realized he was making her nervous.

"Well that's great." She encouraged. "What did you bring?"

He cocked his head to the side and his mouth hung open slightly. "Something tasty."

"Oh," Buffy said quietly looking down. She looked at the papers on her desk for a minute and then twined her fingers together. "So what class do you have now Lenny?" She asked.

After a pause, he replied "I have gym class." And his head snapped back into it's normal position.

"Well should you be getting back then? I wouldn't want you to miss anything." He looked at her thoughtfully before getting up and leaving. Well that was weird. She'd spoken to lots of kids before; bullies, victims of bullies, kids dealing with divorce, drugged out kids… But this kid was just plain weird. But who was she to judge? She turned back to her computer and started typing away a report.

A few minutes later, another girl walked into view and sat down in front of Buffy. "Hi," she said quietly as she sat.

"Hey there." Buffy smiled.

"I uh, I was wondering if you could help me with something." The girl said nervously. She had short curly brown locks, and wore a tiny blue flower clip to hold it in place.

"Of course, that's what I'm here for!" Finally, something to get her through the day.

"Well there's this guy, and he's been being really mean to some of the girls in my class. So I stood up to them and he…" She stopped talking and looked away from Buffy to her hands.

"He did what? Did he hurt you?" Her brow pulled into a worried expression.

"Well, he bit me." She looked back to Buffy again, thinking she wouldn't believe him.

She did, but she didn't. "He bit you?" She asked, and the girl confirmed her story by showing Buffy some strange bite mark on her arm. It didn't look like a vampire bite; it just looked like some weird kid bit her. "Who did this to you?" She frowned. Alright, so vampires biting people was one thing. She would just stick them with a stake and be done. But now some creepy human kid was biting people? Now things were just getting strange.

"This new kid, Lenny."

Oh well now that wasn't so hard to believe. Ironic though that she'd just spoken to him when the girl came.

"Ok well, I'll definitely help you deal with this. For now can I ask that you stay away from him? I'll see what I can do." Buffy watched the girl nod her head shyly.

"I'm Cathy by the way." She said quietly and got up from the chair and left.

"But this kid is biting people!" Buffy was irritated. The principle had said, if there was any kind of problem a student was having that needed more then just a pep talk, that she should bring the problem to him. But no, the principle said that it was probably just hormones! Hormones make teenagers do stupid things, yes. But they don't cause them to bite people out of anger! This kid needed help.

"Buffy, Buffy listen. I'll look into it. I'll keep an eye, and if I catch him in the act I'll suspend him. If he isn't doing any real harm to anyone, then there isn't much I can do about it." The principle looked at Buffy from behind his desk.

"Sir, this girl is afraid. She feels threatened." Buffy's patients were slipping.

"I know, I know. And I'll deal with it. But look, your shift is over, and you have some time for Buffy now. You don't need to worry about the kids until tomorrow. For now, let _me _worry about the students." He nodded towards the door, and she left with a disturbed feeling.

_Time to visit Angel, _she thought as she left the school.


	6. Chapter 6

_(We've just left Buffy about to visit Angel, after a bizarre day at the high school.)_

"Angel?" Buffy called into the door of the gothic mansion in which her boyfriend lived. It was a minute before she heard his distant reply. The sound came from upstairs, and she followed it intently.

When Buffy found Angel, he was watching a news broadcasting on TV, though she didn't see why it was more important than her. He clicked off the monitor he was watching on and gestured for her to sit with him. She fell onto the couch beside he hansom vampire and wrapped her arm around him. He responded by draping his own arm over her shoulders.

"A kid at school bit someone today." Angel laughed at her casualness at the topic.

"He bit someone?" He laughed again. "Just a normal kid?"

"Just a normal kid." She shrugged. "Pretty weird though. He just kept staring at me and talking about is lunch."

"Well I'm going to shoot for the obvious and say that he's probably not a vampire. He would have burnt to a crisp in today in this light." He pointed his thumb at the dark heavy curtains that shielded the window from light that threatened to enter.

Angel hesitated, and Buffy looked up to see his face looking troubled. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it, and repeated the strange process a few more times before he could finally get out what he was going to say. At this point Buffy was nervous, she was sure this was something she would wish she didn't have to know about.

"You know I've sired before, right?" His face looked down, but his eyes looked up to the black television screen in front of him.

She wasn't sure she knew where this was going.

"Well… My grandchilde… I told you about him." He stood up and began pacing, leaving his girlfriend with her legs pulled up beneath her watching him curiously.

"Yeah, William right? The one that likes to kill people." She looked at him seriously, wondering where this was going.

"Don't worry about it; I just thought that you should know. He's here. I'll get rid of him though. Either he'll leave or I'll stake him or something." He continued his nervous pacing.

"You don't want my help?" Buffy asked. She stood up and pulled herself into his arms, stopping him in his tracks.

"No Buffy, I don't want you near him. If you see him, and I'm not with you, you have to get out of there. I know you're the slayer, but this guy will kill you." He stopped her protest with a warning look, and she pouted.

"Fine," She pulled away from him. "I won't bother William the Bloody."

A kick, a powerful thud, and an "Alright, alright enough." Finished Dawn's training session with Giles.

"I'm getting better aren't I?" Dawn grinned widely.

"Well yes, yes I suppose so." Giles wiped his brow with a handkerchief, and let out a whooshing breath.

"So… Do you think I'm ready?" Dawn's hopeful smile was almost as terrible for Giles as Buffy's pout, so he looked away before he could be tempted.

"Now Dawn, that is for Buffy to decide." He relaxed against the table and then sighed in defeat. He knew in his heart that Dawn had been ready to help fight the fight for a long time now; it was only Buffy who had held her back. "If it were up to me Dawn, you would come out tonight and help." He took off his glasses for their ritual cleaning. "But…"

"But… Buffy won't let me." Dawn pursed her lips sadly. Her big sister always treated her like a little child. Buffy had been a lot younger then Dawn when she started slaying vampires! But at the same time, Dawn understood Buffy's reluctance for letting Dawn go out patrolling with her. Buffy had lost people to the fight left right and center, and she didn't want to risk Dawn.

Buffy decided that night, that she wanted to patrol alone. Angel didn't like it, but after Buffy's promise to stay out of his grandechilde's way, he had let her go. The night was a little chilly, but nothing that her red leather jacket couldn't handle. She waltzed contentedly around the graveyard, looking for signs of any new fledges. So far, nothing.

A large blue demon with six horns coming out of his face almost startled her. "Wow," She said sarcastically. There was just too much to say about this demon, and just so little time before she killed him.

The demon lunged at her, but she dodged it easily and threw her stake against his spiny back. It got caught in the spines though and burst into splinters when she yanked it out.

"Oh boo, that was my special pointy one."

The demon turned around and she managed to block a punch, but did not see it coming when one of his spines grew too quickly to see and stabbed her in the thigh. She shouted and backed up, but not until the beast had gotten a good punch in.

A vampire attacked him from behind, and with a snarl the blonde vamp twisted his head a full one hundred and eighty degrees. After a stomach lurching snap, the demon fell dead to the ground.

"Get your hands full there princess?" His British accent flooded her ears. She noticed that she was becoming fond of the sound.

"A little," She smiled accepting his assistance to rise to her feet. "Thanks." She said brushing herself off.

He made a face at her leg, and without warning reached out and gently pushed on it. She ow-ed and slapped his hand away frantically. That hurt! He looked at her with puppy dog eyes, and then at his hand which was covered in deep red slayer blood.

"I'll take you back to my place and clean you up." He looked at her leg again, and decided that she'd better not walk. He lifted her effortlessly into his arms.

"Hey!" She squirmed. "No, no! Put me down!" She kicked her air and pressed against his chest, and he stopped walking in aggravation.

"Listen pet," He started with a frustrated tone. "Either you let me help you, or I get to stand here and watch a girl bleed to death." He looked at her with his eye brows raised, daring her to oppose him again. "You're choice." He waited for a moment to see if she'd answer, and when she didn't he resumed walking. "How's the hurt slayer?" He asked without seeming like he really cared.

"Not so bad that I couldn't kill you if you tried to drink my blood." She smirked.

"Hey, remember who's the one holding up a cripple." His face was without emotion.

The vamp kicked open the door of his make do home, and dropped her onto the couch. He opened up a cabinet that was screwed crudely into the wall, and pulled out a first aid kid. Buffy eyed him cautiously.

"You have one of _those_?" She asked doubtfully.

"Vampires bleed too ya know." He opened it up and pulled out a white cloth, then moved to a pipe and soaked it. "You're gonna have to remove that there slayer." He motioned to her jeans with his hand.

"Uhm, I don't think so." Feeling a little nervous, she bit her lip.

"Fine, we can cut it then. They're ruined anyway." She new he was right. The long tear where the spine had stuck her left a very unfriendly looking style. She said and accepted the knife he'd picked up from the side table.

He raised his hand in a way that told her 'no', and pinched the jean between his fingers and began to slice away. She winced slightly when his hand brushed over the open wound, and he apologized with a sorry look in his eye. He reached for the cloth and began gently dapping at the wound when Buffy found her voice.

"I still don't know your name." She said watching his hands at work.

He shrugged and said, "It's Spike."


	7. Chapter 7

Willow gaped at Buffy when she walked into the house the next morning. It took a couple of hours to stop the bleeding, and when it had the sun was coming up.

"What happened to your leg?" Willow was staring at the leg with only a few inches of jeans covering it. Buffy had since pulled herself into a chair at the island and was stiffly stretching her leg out in front of her.

"Some demon stuck me." He pressed slightly beside the wound, it still hurt. "He's dead now though, so no biggy."

"Oh, I see. What kind of demon was it?" Willow asked worried. She hoped that it wasn't a venomous kind, which could turn out badly.

"I don't know, some big spinney blue guy." She shrugged.

Willow took down a bowl from the cupboard and offered it to Buffy; she accepted it gratefully and poured herself some cereal.

"It looks painful," Willow observed. "Wasn't it hard to fight with the…"

"Well, I didn't have to kill it." Buffy stared out the window wonderingly. Why had Spike saved her? Weird. "Some other vamp came and finished him off for me." Thinking back to the night before, it really didn't make any sense. For a moment Buffy wondered if she'd imagined it all.

"Ooh was it Angel?" Willow grinned with anticipation, and when Buffy shook her head as a negative, she looked confused. "Wait, so a vampire helped you? Did he know you're the slayer?" She sat down beside her friend and entered the same state of surprise and wonder.

"Yeah, he even took me back to where he lives to help me." Ok, something was definitely not right here. Sure, Angel had always helped her out, but Angel had a soul. And Spike… well, there was no way to tell for sure, but she was pretty sure Spike didn't have a soul.

"Wow." Was all Willow could think to say. And with that, they ate their cereal in silence.

Some loud thuds on the stairs told the girls that Dawn was hurrying towards them. "Morning, running late, gotta go, bye!" She called to them before bursting out the door. Willow and Buffy looked at each other for a minute before shrugging and returning to their breakfast.

A few hours later had the scoobies all together – minus Dawn – at the Magic Box. Buffy and Giles were talking seriously at the counter, leaning towards each other over the glass, about the demon from the night prior.

"So you're saying that he had six horns on his head, and the rest of him was covered with spines." Giles confirmed.

"Yes, but I wasn't really worried about counting, more like killing and not dying." Buffy didn't understand why the number of horns the demon had really mattered. It had tried to kill her, hadn't succeeded, died, and was no longer.

"I see, I see." He thought idly for a moment before continuing. "Right, well would you mind if I take a look and the wound?" He asked.

"I guess so…" Buffy muttered, and pulled up the leg of her sweat pants. The cut was definitely still there all bloody and still bruised.

Giles' brow furrowed with concern as he looked at the clearly unhealthy cut. "Does it hurt if I do this?" He reached his hand out and prodded the flesh bellow the swelling.

"Ouch, Giles!" Buffy jumped away from him. "You know it hurts, why would you push so hard?" Her shocked anger flooded her voice.

"I'm sorry Buffy," he took off his glasses to clean them. "But I hardly touched you." Returning his glasses to their rightful place, he moved to a bookshelf and pulled out a book with an old leather bind. "I'm hoping your demon might be in here." He said from across the room.

"Hey Buff," Xander came up beside her and leaned against the counter. "So Willow here, tells me that there was some other guy vampire last night?" He waves his arms around as if trying to catch the answer out of thin air.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird." Buffy chuckled humorlessly.

"Right well, you know with William the big bag and bloody around, you might want to be careful around the vamps. Especially big broody ones that happen to sometimes go killer crazy and eat half the town." He nodded his head seriously. Xander had never really gotten over the whole; Angel-Angelus thing. Not that he especially liked him in the first place.

"Don't worry Xand. I can take care of myself." She smiled at his big brotherly concern and patted his arm.

Willow came in with Dawn after picking her up from school in Xander's car. He'd offered to do it, but Willow said that she'd never picked Dawn up and decided that it would be fun. So off she went.

Anya was carelessly putting away a new order of books they'd received, and Giles was professionally explaining to a customer about the many uses of bat wings. Xander made many sarcastic remarks to Dawn as he eavesdropped on what Giles was saying. Dawn found it hard to focus on her homework – not that she minded the distraction – through her muffled laughter at what her friend was saying.

"Hey guys, I think I found it." Willow suddenly gestured to her friends with her hand to come and look. She was searching through the pages of a big book for the demon Buffy had encountered. "I think this is it." She pointed to a fuzzy drawing of what looked to be the right demon. She looked up at Buffy for a response, but Buffy was too worried about the caption beneath the demon.

'_Doesn't travel through dimensions unless summoned, incredibly dangerous, follows orders from their master thoroughly before taking a mind of their own and doing as they please. Toxins found inside the spines of the beast were used in the ancient wars between the Egyptians and the Romans._' Buffy read the side note nervously. So this thing was summoned to kill her? And now she was poisoned… Maybe.

"Willow, what does this mean?" She pointed to where it said '_toxins found inside the spines_'. "How was the venom used?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Oh I don't think you'll have to worry much about that Buffy, what with your insane slayer strength and all." Willow reassured with a smile. "This stuff will be out of your system in no time." She turned back to her text.

"And if it doesn't?" Buffy crossed her arms nervously. She didn't want to think about the many things that this strange venom could do to her. Kill her? Maybe. That was probably the least it could do. She thought for a minute about the burning that could go through her veins that could very well start at any second.

"Well then we've got a problem." Her eyebrows raised, she had no idea what then. She'd get to that if it became a problem.

"Ok, well I have to get to work." Buffy made her way to the staircase, time to shower and be off. She'd have to go without breakfast for today.

When she finally made it into her office, wearing a respectable crème coloured blouse and black pants, there was already someone waiting for her.

"Not enjoying gym Lenny?" She asked the strange boy who sat in the chair in front of her desk. He only stared at her. "Ok…"She looked around awkwardly. "What can I help you with?" The smile that she tried to make sincere, looked very fake.

"Why did you choose that shirt?" He asked after a pause. He pointed to her blouse demanding an answer when she stared at him shocked.

"My shirt?" She mumbled looking down. Oh good, she _was _wearing clothes. For a second she felt like she was in one of those nightmares where you go to school naked. "Um, I like it." She said innocently. "Is it bad?" She looked down again, searching for some fault in her fashion sense.

Lenny shrugged and stood up from his chair, and made his way to the door. Buffy shook her head with an expression that could only mean '_what the hell?'_

A girl that Buffy recognized as Dawn's last science partner, Amelia, came in and took a seat. "Hi Buffy," she said absently. "I was just wondering if we could talk."

"Of course we can Amelia, that's why I'm here." Buffy prodded her.

"Ok, well… It's just that, I don't know, I've been having these nightmares… And, it's not that I think they're real or anything, but they won't go away." She looked at the desk in front of her, and then shook her head. "Never mind, I shouldn't be bothering you with this." She went to get up, but Buffy grabbed her arm and silently asked her to sit back down.

"This is what I'm here for Amelia, if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. Now tell me about these nightmares."

"Well," She searched for the right words to explain her strange dreams. "I keep dreaming that a giant hairy blue guy kidnaps me and forces me to marry him. I dunno, it's just really disturbing." She was getting uncomfortable. The councilor probably would think she was crazy.

"Wait, a giant hairy blue guy? Can you explain that in a little more detail please?" She pulled out a pad of paper and began jotting things down in black ink.

"Uh, ok I guess." Her shoulders fell forward slightly at the remembrance of all the gory details. "The dreams usually start normal, just me hanging out with my friends, doing homework, playing volleyball." Amelia was on the volleyball team, she was pretty good. "And then this little spider comes to me. It usually walks onto my shoe, or jumps on me. Last night it fell from it's web onto my head. And then it bites me. You know how sometimes when you dream, it's like you can actually feel it happening?" She watched Buffy stop writing and nod her head in concentration. The look in her eye seemed a little too concerned for Amelia's comfort. "Well, it's like that. It hurts, a lot. And then when I wake up it kind of burns and itches where it got me.

After I see the spider, I scream for my brother, and he runs in and gets rid of it for me. But I never see what he does with it. Everything gets dark then." Buffy was staring at her, not writing. "And then, these guys with weird foreheads come and grab me and drag me out of my house and we end up in this scary gothic mansion."

Buffy's thoughts immediately jump to Angel's mansion, and she begins writing again.

_Biting spider._

_Vampires?_

_Mansion._

"When we get inside the mansion I'm wearing a wedding dress, but for some reason the veil is made out of spider silk and it sticks to my fingers. That part is always the same. I always walk over the threshold into this big ball room area in the mansion, and my clothes change into the gown. And I always reach up to feel it and it always sticks to my fingers. But then the giant hairy blue guy comes, and he goes like this," she makes a curling _'come here'_ motion with her finger. "And then the guys with the weird foreheads push me over to him, and then he starts laughing and I wake up." She watched as Buffy's writing hand slowed to a stop.

"Amelia, how long have you been having these dreams?"

"A while." She admitted shyly.

Buffy nodded.

Patrolling that night was uneventful. Buffy had ruefully decided to take a very excited Dawn along with her. She'd been training hard with Giles for a while now, and she supposed that it was only fair to let her train along side her slayer sister with the real deal. Buffy knew that Dawn was ready; she just didn't want to take a chance on her getting hurt. What if she was overestimating the fifteen year old? What if Dawn _really _got hurt? She wouldn't let that happen. If Dawn was in harms way (not that she wasn't always), Buffy would be there, stake in hand, to save her. She always was, always would be.

When a large blue demon came out from behind the mausoleum, Buffy's gasp made Dawn take a few step backs. Maybe her coming a long had been a bad idea after all.

"You," Buffy stammered. "You, you died." She pointed at him, a dramatic gesture on her part.

The demon laughed. "I guess your little boyfriend didn't kill me enough."

"He is _not _my boyfriend." She sneered before kicking him hard in the face.

It didn't take her long to realize that the things that she before thought to be spines, now looked an awful lot like thick hairs. Damn it.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry it took so long, I have an arm injury which makes typing next to impossible. Which is why this chapter is so short. Please have sympathy and not be mad. :( I'll post again soon with a longer chapter, I promise!**

Could this be the girl's demon? The one threatening to make Amelia his bride? Whether he was or not, he was _so _about to be dead. Buffy jumped up quickly and kicked the demon in the face.

"Dawn run." She gasped in panic. This was why she'd never taken Dawn out before.

Dawn obeyed immediately; she turned quickly and ran full speed back to the house. Just outside the door was Angel, about to go inside.

"Dawn?" He asked, worried about the look of terror on her face.

"Buffy, demon, help!" She panted out the words and pointed her thumb in the general direction of the cemetery.

Angel took off at once. Running with vampire speed, he made it to the cemetery just in time to stop the demon from sending Buffy's own stake through her heart. He tore the demon away from her, not realizing his claws that took painful chunks from her shoulders. The demon sent a long blade like spine through his tail, and shot Angel across the chest with it. He turned in time to not get the strange bone through his heart, but it still cut sharply across his chest.

Buffy was up in a second, coming again at the demon. "Take that!" She screamed, not having any sarcastic things to say at the time. She punched the demon hard in the back of the head, not really hurting him much, but hearing a cracking sound never the less. She went to punch him again, when she realized the cracking sound had come from her own fist.

Angel grabbed the demon by the horn atop his head, and swung him into a near by tree. It was effective. The tree snapped in half and the demon had slimy purple blood dripping out of his back where a spine had been torn loose. He hurried away before either Buffy or Angel could reach him.

"Are you alright?" Angel asked his girlfriend, pulling her quickly to her feet.

"My hand," she lifted the swelling knuckles up for him to examine. "I think it's broken."

He felt it gently, noticing her wince every time his fingers lightly brushed the skin. Blood was caked onto the purple lump that was forming. "We should get you to a hospital." He murmured.

Buffy raised her hand to protest, going for an open palmed stop sign, when her hand have off a protest of it's own. "Good idea." She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain.

In the waiting room at the hospital's ER, Buffy explained to Angel in a hushed tone about the girl at the school, the girl's dreams, the biting boy, the spider and the demon. He listened intently and commented about how the all seemed related.

Giles met them at the hospital soon after they arrived, after Buffy'd managed to finish her tale. While the doctor was looking at her x-rays, Angel filled the watcher in about the demon. "He was huge," he began. "Bigger than most demons I've ever seen around the hell mouth." He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for Buffy's return. "It had these spines, huge spines that it could make bigger at will. They were more like long sharp hairs actually."

Giles considered this for a moment. "Hairs, are you sure?" Angel nodded a response. "I think I've heard of this demon before, sure of it actually." He was about to begin reading off his mental note about a large blue demon with live hairs that he'd remembered from an old text, when Buffy emerged with a tight black brace on her hand.


	10. Chapter 10

After some heavy discussion, Buffy finally gave in to letting the others patrol for her for the night. She knew that they'd never be able to harm the demon even a little bit. But also she'd be no good for saving them or herself either. Her hand was still healing, and that made it impossible to effectively punch while holding a stake. She had one hand to use and it wasn't useful. Dawn was at Janis' for the night, so that was a little bit better. She hoped though, that if anything happened to the team, that Spike would help them. She wasn't sure how the gang would take to being helped by another Vampire – this one being all time soulless – but Angel just wasn't enough in this case.

Her hopes were shattered when a knock on the door was revealed to be none other than her bleach blonde friend.

"I've come for the tea party." He said grandly when she didn't make a move to invite him in. He had expected as much, but still. He smirked to show her that he was kidding, and she stepped to the side. The gesture was clear on what it meant, and with a tingle on his spine he crossed the threshold. "Hurt your hand there pet?" He asked casually, throwing his duster over the stair rail.

"Same demon as before, it stuck it's spine through me." She held up her gauss wrapped hand for him to examine.

He shook his head making tsk sounds, and then raised his eyebrow at her. "Too bad I wasn't there to save you huh?" It seemed like he was hinting at something, but she decided not to play along.

"Yeah, Angel couldn't do much damage either." She shrugged and motioned with her hand for him to follow her into the living room.

"Angel?" He asked. He stood in the doorway, and stared at her with some kind of unreadable expression on his face. "As in… Angelus?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh well that's just great." He put his tongue to the front of his teeth and looked at the ceiling. "Me and him don't really get along much." He told her without holding back his hatred even a little.

"I see." She looked at the floor. "You wouldn't happen to be his grandchilde would you?" She asked nervously. Perhaps this was the William the Bloody that she was supposed to be avoiding. He seemed nice enough though.

His face paled slightly, and he looked as though she were to stake him, and then nodded his head slightly.

She considered her options for a second, and then made for the door. "He'll be back any time now. If he finds you here he'll kill you." She opened the door for him to go through but he just stared at her with an arrogant look on his face. "What?" Spike needed to leave already. Every second was a risk to the both of them.

"You think I can't take down old Angelus?" His smile was gone and he looked stern now. An expression she'd never seen him hold.

"I really wish you wouldn't try." She watched as the wheels in his head turned, and then he smiled and walked out without saying so much as a goodbye.

Buffy was still standing at the door when her friends finally returned. A breath of relief made it's way out of her as she embraced each and every one of them.

"I was so worried about you." She said when she got to Willow, but she meant it to all of them.

They all began to speak at once, except for Angel who was looking around with a terrible glare. "What is this?" He asked pointing to Spike's leather coat. He'd forgotten it. Or had he? He'd looked pretty smug when he was leaving.

"That's um…" She searched for the right words to explain. She didn't want to lie to Angel, but she wouldn't have him hurt Spike either. She didn't know why, but she already felt close to the considerably evil vampire.

"I thought I told you to stay away from William. Has he been here?" He demanded with an unforgiving tone.

"You _told _me, to stay away from William. The vampire met introduced himself as something else. How was I supposed to know?"

He was fuming. "So you just let any old vampire in here huh?" He shook his head in fury. "No wait, let's not forget that you not only ignored me when I told you to stay away from him, but you've been going to him behind my back!" His face had turned an angry shade of red. This was new for him.

"Angel I didn't-"

"You lied to me Buffy." He cut her off, sounding cooler now. He looked hurt.

Buffy didn't respond. There was nothing for her to say. So she'd met a guy that just happened to be the guy that her boyfriend wanted her to keep her distance from. She wasn't really lying to him was she? She'd only found out a short while ago. So she hadn't told Angel when she'd come in. Was she really going to keep it a secret from him? She didn't know.

Angel angrily stormed out the door, not looking back. Buffy felt herself go numb with fear. This was just a fight right? He wouldn't leave her over this… Her sure seemed angry enough.

She sat alone on the couch late into the night while Xander, Anya, and eventually Giles filled out. And there she remained long after Tara and Willow had gone to bed. A light knock on the door made her pray that Angel had come back, to let her explain herself. She flew to the door, searching for anything to say to make it better. But it wasn't Angel at the door. It was the man who'd caused the drama himself.

"Hello Spike." She said looking down.

"Not happy to see poor Spike?" He teased. When he saw the look of despondency on her face, he pushed around her. "Just came to grab my duster." He said quietly and lifted it from where it had dropped to the floor at Angel's touch earlier.

Buffy made her way silently back to the couch and pulled her feet up beneath her. Spike stared at her for a moment. He couldn't leave her like this. Not when it was probably his fault that she was going through this. He regretted 'forgetting' the duster now.

"Buffy," He said with wonder. She looked up at him sadly. For a reason he couldn't quite figure out, her teary eyes pained him beyond belief. What he could only imagine as his heart breaking into a million pieces seemed little compared to this. "What happened love?"

She shifted a little in her seat, and he took this as an invitation to sit with her. He was strangely glad when she didn't move away from him.

"Angel knows you were here." Her eyes turned red with the tears that threatened to explode out of her. "I don't know, I just… I think it might be over for us." She looked at the wall at the other side of the room.

Over for us? Did she mean them? Were they together? If they were then he probably didn't even realize the extent to the mistake he'd made.

"I'm sorry." He knew those were the wrong words to use. Sorry didn't even come close to cutting it. He felt so much more than just 'sorry'.

"It's alright, not your fault." She sniffled and leaned her head against the arm of the couch. "I wasn't even going to tell him. I lied, and that was wrong. Now I get to pay the price." Her lip quivered slightly, and Spike wished he could make it so that it would never happen again.

He wanted to hold her, but he knew it wouldn't go over well, so he settled by rubbing her arm gently. She shut her eyes when he did, which made him smile. When she sighed he knew she needed to sleep. It was already four in the morning; he couldn't guess what had her up to this hour.

"Time for bed love?" He brushed the hair from her face. She was so beautiful to him.

"I don't want to go to sleep." Her eyebrows pulled in at the middle. But she sat up, and took him by complete surprise when she wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thank you Spike." She said when he slid his arms around her and leaned his head against hers.

He didn't respond, he just sat there and held her. He could stay there forever if she'd let him. By after what felt like a short time, he saw the sun peek over the horizon.

"Gotta go slayer," He said jumping up. She looked out the window and frowned.

"Spike, you can't go out there." She shook her head at the window. He'd burn up in seconds.

"Not much else to do." He weighed his options lightly and then grabbed his jacket.

"No, Spike." She pulled him away from the hall. "It's daylight now, and Angel won't be coming around anytime soon. So why don't you just stay here until it's safe?"

This girl was amazing. For a second Spike envied Angel of her. But he quickly shook the thought from his head. Even if he _did _like Buffy, he wasn't about to fight _Angel _for a girl _again._


	11. Author Note

Author Note:

Guys, I'm not posting a new chapter yet. Sorry, but I needed to say something to all of my readers.

I've been getting a LOT of "why is this turning into a Spike and Buffy, I wanted a Buffy Angel story" well CHILL and stop jumping to conclusions. THANK YOU. This isn't turning into a Spike and Buffy story, I'm just creating tension between the characters to help build on my upcoming apocalypse. So please stop sending flames and such.

No more flames and haters please, if you want to keep reading and see where the story goes I would LOVE that, but otherwise that's fine too.

Thanks to all of my supporters, I'm glad you like this, and it means a lot to me that you take the time to send me nice reviews and to sit and read this. 


End file.
